Jonathan’s war against democracy

The portentous cloud of absolutism hanging over the country should arouse serious concerns of men of valour. Such men are expected to stand up and challenge the budding cabal of exploitation that is sprouting in Abuja before they gain enough stability that could send most of us back to the trenches. The activists must wake up from their sleep: All writers of conscience must gather more ink and get their thoughts ready for the battle with one sole aim: To rescue democracy from the fistic grip of men that failed to learn from history. We all need to talk, agitate and possibly kick, if only to let the slaves of power realise that today is not forever.

Edmund Burke, that Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher that served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party once rebelled against King George III and Great Britain during their taxation-induced disputes with the American colonies. The face-off eventually culminated in the American Revolution that brought an end to British colonial rule over the United States’ territory. The English thinker and parliamentarian of repute remarkably observed in that turbulent period that ‘All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.’ This noteworthy statement was made to rouse patriotic activism against the despotism of that epoch. Nigeria needs such arousal from true mentors of conscience in our midst.

Nigeria under President Goodluck Jonathan is currently building up a culture of tyranny that has made dissenting voices its prime target. Most reasonable Nigerians are bothered not because the nation has not passed through this path before but because history is replete with examples of leaders that clamp down on Nigerians long after they begin to enjoy too much power and freedom only to fall later into ignominy. Will Jonathan learn from recent history of despots like Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, that all left power in disgrace?

The Nigerian Governors’ Forum’s (NGF’s) election that held recently bears eloquent testimony to Jonathan’s feeble historical memory about how not to use power. The NGF in that election got its incumbent chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state re-elected. Thirty-five votes from equal number of governors present were cast. One governor abstained. Governor Amaechi in the transparently conducted election where the ballots were counted openly scored 19 votes to Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, his main challenger’s 16.

Since the election result was announced, the centre could no longer hold as it became apparent that the presidency felt slighted by the outcome of the election. Foot soldiers of President Jonathan including Governors Godswill Akpabio, Seriake Dickson and Segun Mimiko of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Ondo states respectively have been inexorably challenging the result that was against Jonah Jang, their mentor’s obvious preferred choice. The president can say to the marines that he had no preferred candidate in the NGF election contest – certainly not to discernible Nigerians!

But one thing is clear to keenly observant public, there is no love lost between the president and the Rivers state governor. Amaechi has so far stood up to the Abuja power drunken inclination. Rivers State’s reported two million votes is strategic to Jonathan’s 2015 re-election ambition in the South-South and he has shown through his open secret fight with Amaechi that he cannot stand an enemy of his ambition to be in charge in that state. But Amaechi is a student of activism. The pursuit of crusades has taken him thus far in life. He battled and crushed all enemies on his path of becoming the governor of that state. So, he is back in his familiar terrain of justified confrontation. To further complicate the president’s woes in Rivers is Amaechi’s reported wonderful performance in the delivery of democratic dividend to the people.

The PDP has suspended Amaechi from its fold for celebrating his NGF election victory considered by hawks in the party to be an embarrassment to President Jonathan. The body language of the president has goaded the plot to cause further incensed political rumpus in that state. The PDP has never been a party with any sense of etiquette and whatever act of dishonour coming from it should not be a disappointment to anybody. What should bother us more is the fact that the party is trying to introduce its do-or-die politics into the affairs of an NGF with governor-membership that cut across different major political parties in the country.

Equally more frightening is the fact that a body of governors that are individually acknowledged to be leaders of their various states could be so vulnerable to anti-democratic inclination. How else can one describe the effrontery of Jang in proclaiming himself a winner in an election that he openly lost? Why should he set up a parallel NGF secretariat when a de jure chairman is in place? Is this not an invitation to anarchy? Could it then be concluded that entrusting our present and future in the hands of democratically dishonourable men like Jang and cohorts is injurious to the political stability of this nation? With what has happened during the last NGF election, should Nigerians expect to see anything different in the coming 2015 elections to be anchored by these mostly democratically challenged governors?

Where is President Jonathan leading the country to? The country is not getting it right under the current dispensation and it would not be wrong to say that this democracy because of the president’s ambition in 2015 is not steeped in realistic footing. Under Jonathan, like we had under previous PDP leadership, we have two democracies: One for the rich and the other for the poor. The PDP government since the advent of this democracy teaches the people by its feral democratic example not to believe in the Nigerian system. And the danger in this is that if the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law and it is indirectly inviting every man to become a law unto himself. And anarchy is the end result.

With the way things are going, anarchy is looming ahead due to the daily injustices suffered by the people not only in Port-Harcourt but across the country. Nigeria needs a new political orientation and; an army of sincere and unrelenting advocates for the poor. This is because except there is a new state of mind, the country lies on the rim of precipice because tyranny and anarchy are twin brothers. Let us all say a word or do something symbolic to show our utmost disdain for the way of political perdition that Jonathan and his team of jesters are leading this country. This is very important so as to nip in the bud early, the injurious war against democracy by our president. Speaking out and acting at the right time has positively helped in other nations where people like Edmund Burke once lived.